World News

By Doina Chiacu, Reuters US Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at an election campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on 29 August. Photo: AFP/ Kyle Mazza US Vice President Kamala Harris has criticised her Republican presidential rival Donald Trump on Saturday over a visit he made to soldiers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery that was later used in campaign video footage. "It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honour American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation. It is not a place for politics," Harris wrote in an X post. The vice president weighed in five days after Trump took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honouring the 13 servicemembers killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He also visited Section 60 of ...

By Tom Balmforth for Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden in June 2024. Photo: Mandel NGAN / AFP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky increased pressure on the United States to let Kyiv strike deeper into Russian territory after his representatives met senior US officials in Washington on Saturday. Washington has provided Ukraine with more than US$50 billion (NZ$80bn) worth of military aid since 2022, but has limited the use of its weapons to Ukrainian soil and defensive cross-border operations. "Clearing the Ukrainian sky of Russian guided aerial bombs is a strong step to force Russia to seek an end to the war and a just peace," Zelensky said in his nightly video address. Appealing to the United States, Britain, France and Germany, he said, "We...

By Andrew MacAskill, Reuters An Oasis fan takes a photo at a new mural by Pic.One.Art, of Oasis' Liam and Noel Gallagher on the side of a record store in Manchester, UK, on 27 August, the day the band announced plans to re-form and tour. Photo: AFP/ Paul Ellis High demand sees fans struggle to get tickets Fans complain of website errors, long waits Tickets sell out after 10 hours Tickets for next year's Oasis reunion tour sold out by Saturday evening (UK time), though fans eager to see the band play live for the first time in 16 years complained of technical issues and long online waits that often ended in disappointment. Fans trying to access the three websites selling the tickets - Ticketmaster, See Tickets and Gigsandtours - reported issues, including error messages and being ki...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mohammad Salem for Reuters Medics on Saturday administered polio vaccines on children at Nasser Hospital in a symbolic move before the official campaign begins. Photo: Jihad Al-Sharafi / AFP Israeli strikes have killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health authorities said, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the enclave ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign. The United Nations is due to start vaccinating some 640,000 children in the territory against polio, relying on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in specific areas of the besieged enclave. Yousef Abu Al-Reesh, Gaza's deputy minister of health, said vaccination teams would try to get to as many areas as...

Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP A manslaughter investigation into the sinking of a superyacht that killed seven people will take months if not longer, a New Zealand maritime lawyer says. Italian prosecutors are investigating the captain of the Bayesian, New Zealand citizen James Cutfield, along with two crew members for the crimes of manslaughter and shipwreck after the sinking off the coast of Sicily. Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow. The owner of the Bayesian, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and six other people on board were killed when the British-flagged yacht capsized on 19 August during a storm. While an investigation had begun, Oceanlaw New Zealand partner Karyn van Wijngaarden warned it would not be a short process. Italian Carab...

By Josh Robertson, ABC Hong Kong's powerful Cheng family led by Cheng Yu Tung forged connections with former US President Donald Trump when he faced financial ruin. Photo: AFP / File Hong Kong's powerful Cheng family have wanted a piece of the Australian casino industry for nearly 40 years. Now, through their family-controlled conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, they hold a billion-dollar-plus stake in the Star Brisbane, Australia's most expensive casino venture. It was this quest for an Australian casino that thrust the Chengs into an unwitting role in something more significant: the rise of Donald Trump. An unlikely partnership between the self-promoting New York tycoon and the publicity-shy Hong Kong billionaires was forged decades ago in bids to build casinos in north Queensl...

Elon Musk. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/ AFP By Lisandra Paraguassu, Luana Maria Benedito and Ricardo Brito, Reuters Brazil's telecommunications regulator said on Friday local time it was proceeding to suspend access to Elon Musk's X social network in the country in compliance with an order from a judge who has been locked in a months-long feud with the billionaire investor. The move followed the expiry of a court-imposed deadline for the popular social media platform to name a legal representative in Brazil. Musk has argued that Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes is trying to enforce unjustified censorship, while the judge has insisted that social media needs hate speech regulations. "They're shutting down the #1 source of truth in Brazil," Musk said in a post on X on Friday. They’...

American musician Bill Callahan Photo: Supplied For Bill Callahan, it's "a version of hell" to play songs the same way every time. The beloved American musician tells Music 101's Charlotte Ryan about the thrill of improvising on his new live album Resuscitate!, the "little sparks" which become songs and why he's planning to explore not songwriting later this year. This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Improvised music can sometimes get a little tiring "because there's not always a ground to stand on", Callahan says, but for him, that looseness is also part of its appeal. "I like that unstructured and floating and confused feeling that a lot of like free jazz gives me but I also wanted to combine that with a ghostly, overarching structure so that it was someho...

TV star Matthew Perry died in October 2023 from an overdose. Photo: Gabriel BOUYS / AFP One of two doctors who are among the five people charged in the ketamine overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry was barred by a federal judge on Friday local time from practising medicine and through his lawyer afterward expressed remorse. Dr. Mark Chavez appeared in US District Court in Los Angeles for a brief arraignment on a single felony count of conspiracy to illegally distribute ketamine and was permitted to remain free on US$50,000 bond. Chavez has previously signed an agreement with federal prosecutors to enter a guilty plea, which defence lawyer Matt Binninger told reporters his client would do at a later proceeding to be scheduled within a few weeks. No plea was entered on Friday. As ...

Donald Trump. Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he will vote against an amendment in his home state of Florida that would enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution and overturn a current six-week abortion ban. Trump made the comments to Fox News, a day after he caused confusion when he seemed to suggest in an interview with NBC News that he would vote in favour of the amendment. The amendment was strongly opposed by the anti-abortion groups that have backed his campaign in the 5 November election against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. "I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks," Trump said, adding he also believed the proposed amendment was too permissive. "So I'll be voting no for that reason," ...